What makes a second-hand card table worth $490,000? It's certainly not the need for a surface on which to play cards. That need can be met for much less money. You know what it is? It's that the wealthy fill their lives with otherwise-common items that perpetually rise in value, while we do the same with similar items that lose half their value, never to be regained, the minute we take them out of the store.

Two tables. One is $280 and the other is $490,000. The difference between the two is that the price of the former comes from demand related only to the service it renders in its specific form, as a table, and the latter comes from demand related to two different services it renders, that of a table and also that of a store of value.

Take the $490,000 card table for example. We could say that the buyer paid $280 for a table, a well-crafted and nice-looking flat surface with four legs, and another $489,720 for a store of value. When you look at it this way, it starts to make sense why the wealthy often buy such remarkable "real things" and then hide them away for decades, packed in unassuming wooden crates, in places like this-Über-warehouses for the ultra-rich-rather than "using" them in their homes.

man, what a greedy fark. Sure, selling the one statue for $58 million makes sense, but you can just retire after that. Quit once you've made it and let somebody else get in on the gravy train. This is how all the con artists get caught.

I'm no defender of the wealthy but note 2 things: 1) this is nothing new as rich folks love spending shocking amounts of cash on some favored artist since probably there was money and art; and 2) you can go see it at his casino.

As to factor 2, that obviously doesn't make the man a saint. But OTOH, rich people often buy art works and don't let the public see it ever. So, I guess in that sense and if you are a Jeff Koons fan or generally like pop art and are in Vegas, you can go see it. Obviously it would be better if he spent the money on the local domestically battered and crippled war orphans with AIDS charity shelter. But there you have it.

I feel like Koons' art is completely representative of this time period. It's completely vapid, devoid of meaning, and way overpriced. He's the Kim Kardashian or Snookie of the art world - he's famous mostly for being famous, not for being talented or particularly good at anything, and when you look at his art for more than 5 minutes, you realize that there's not anything to see beyond what's on the surface.

JungleBoogie:The 85 Richest People In The World Have As Much Wealth As The 3.5 Billion Poorest

Which means 85 people have as much wealth as half of the world - the poorest half.

A combination of Arab oil sheiks and the guys behind Google'/Facebook/(insert other world changing thing here) have as much wealth as various subsistence farmers in the poorest, most farked up, lowest trust, familial-based nations on earth, most of which are just coming out from under or are still in various autocratic/socialist regimes.

No comment how the statue is a stainless-steel 100% copy of a $15 toy? As in, zero creativity except for an idea to render a small piece of plastic in stainless steel at a couple dozen times its original size, with no credit given to the original toy sculptor?

Jamesac68:No comment how the statue is a stainless-steel 100% copy of a $15 toy? As in, zero creativity except for an idea to render a small piece of plastic in stainless steel at a couple dozen times its original size, with no credit given to the original toy sculptor?